The invention relates generally to the field of electronics and, more particularly, to electronic and computing devices that include a wireless communications capability.
In modern computing environments, wireless communications between computing devices is gaining in popularity. To bring about this capability, antennas are being integrated into the design of various types of computing devices. While a high level of integration can be advantageous in providing a very capable computing system that is available off-the-shelf, the presence of radio frequency sources within the enclosure of the portable computing device can cause interference and performance degradation of the computing device. For this reason, manufacturers have experienced difficulty in integrating radio frequency sources into computing device enclosures.
One approach toward bringing about radio frequency communications in at least a partially integrated fashion is to make use of an external card slot, such as a PCMCIA slot, to provide the wireless communications port. However, this approach results in an RF xe2x80x9cappendagexe2x80x9d that is both aesthetically inelegant as well as prone to damage when the computing device is placed within in its carrying case. Further, the physical location of the PCMCIA slot is not optimized for use with a radio frequency communications device, resulting in decreased performance of the wireless communications link.
Thus, it is highly desirable for a computing device to incorporate an antenna that is more resistant to damage when the device is stored within its carrying case. It is additionally desirable for the radio frequency equipment to preserve the aesthetic aspects of the computing device.